There are still 4 races remaining in the series. Wednesday June 13, 27, and the final June 28 with 2 races. Contact José e Robitaille at jorob@videotron.ca for more information.

Shep Report

Hey ho everyone! The trip started almost two weeks ago when a small contingent from the Haro Lee Dungarees race team competed in a Mexican national series race. Race was 8 km of sweet single track and organised better than most Canada Cups. No mess up other than having 200 people on the course at the same time. Felt like hell due my lack of sleep and the party hotel and the knasty training I did two days previous in Alpine. After spending three days in Rosa Rita (Mexican for "smell of death on roadside") we headed back over the boarder to do last minute prep for Big Bear. My prep included drinking coffee, freezing my ass off in the air conditioned hotel and riding in smog which basically amounts to hacking butts while I trained. Redeyes errr... Redlands is where most of the cross country rider's stayed whilst seeking shelter from the altitude.

The cross country came quick and so did the start with Ryder driving the front and leading up the first single track. 115 riders followed (big time improvement in the amount of racers) some riding over their heads while other's bided their time waiting for the front runners to blow. Sure enough many came back under the burden of breathing in oxygen debt at 8500ft.

My group was being led by Dre, shamoe, mexi fry, pizza hut and Larson....I clung to the back riding conservatively for fear of blowing. Near the top I was wound off as the front guys accelerated but was able to get back on at the halfway point of the downhill. Four minutes later, and a little more climbing the group started to finish the lap....and what happened to me? A flat. Rolled it around for another minute then hopped off the lame stead for a little mending action. Changed it about as fast as my Gramma could then hopped aboard in the sweet 38h position!

While I twittled my thumbs in the single track, Molday was busy riding everyone off his wheel.....even current world cup leader Rolli! Unreal power. Shamoe was still in the steady position of top five with Larson showing some interest as well. Somewhere on the climb Dry Ryder broke his chain and fell from third place.....tough luck but he fixed it fast and got back into position. Oh yeah, early leader and front runner Dre double flatted and cheered from the sideline, as did Tinker. I time trialed for 79 minutes by myself and caught 15 on the second lap and another nine on the last lap for a finish of 15th. Happy the legs were there. The front runners didn't jockey much for position except for Ryder who pushed through the slag and onto the podium. Shamoe nearly caught Pavel for third missing by a handful of seconds while Rollie took second place honors.

Next was short track day. Woke up, met the other Canucks, and went for an hour's worth of chain smoking in Redlands. Back to the hotel for some packing, picked shamoe up and yet another attempt for the F1 record up the Big Bear highway (going the speed limit of course). Preceeded the 25 minutes of pain by doing an hour's worth of autograph signing and another light warm up.

Start was nuts with Ryder flogging us like we were dead horses. Snarl Swenson went hard and then down hard in the first corner....taking shamoe and Kabush with him. Ryder gapped and started to make time. Killen, Maple chased with Pavel and I watching.....those two got tired of that and pulled off leaving the duties to let's see ... Me. I looked around and no one was willing to chase so leave it to the dumb Canuck with grandeur visions to show everyone how stong he is (a little sarcasm). Pulled Ryder back to within 5 seconds then Shamoe batted cleanup and closed the gap. I filtered back to fifth before snarl came by tight on the climb, squashing my speed and making me dab. Tried to get on for the next ten minutes but sat about 30 yards behind making no progress. The front was being pressed by Pavel now as he tried a break, then Pizza hut charged, and finally with a bit over a lap the mighty white rasta burning his pasta attacked hard creating a gap that surely would hold? No, out of nowhere, on the last descent, dry ryder sneaks by and took the bow a top the podium. Shamoe second, rollie third, russian superstar four and pizza hut costa rican in fifth. I rolled in some 28 seconds later in 12th .... a little demoralized but happy shamoe was in second.